My Absence, Holiday, and Coming Back!

For the last week-and-a-half, you have not seen any new articles by me. For the past three weeks (!), I have not written anything at all. For my two week holiday, I had scheduled some posts and thought that I would write something while there. Wrong! Not that it mattered anyway, the world didn’t disappear!

But I’m back! And it’s good to be back here behind the keyboard. It does feel a little bit weird, but hey that’s okay. I’m writing again!

Holiday

I’ve been on the other side of the pond for two full weeks and took two and a half weeks off of work. Let me say one thing: the USA was incredible!

I’ve visited twice last year, both for work. But when you’re working, you can’t really see anything. That’s why I knew I had to go back there for a personal trip with Girlfriend.

We’ve visited two cities on the east coast and enjoyed the shit out of it!

Fitness

This is something our American friends are bad at. I mean, yes there are some very fit people. But on average, oh my! The problem is food, for sure. Eating too much is a problem, especially when everything is either fried or contains a lot of sugar.

Next to that, it amazes me how sedentary the average American is. They don’t move! I should probably write a few Fire the Belly posts again!

Personally, we did eat too much sugar and fried food, that’s for sure. But we also walked a lot compared to what we do at home. On average we walked a good 20,000 steps per day.

Because of that, I didn’t turn into a big round squishy thing immediately. I did gain some weight and my body fat percentage did increase a bit, but it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated.

Finances

This holiday wasn’t exactly cheap. Even though we used my frequent flyer miles to purchase the tickets, we spent more on this holiday than any of our previous ones.

The problem with the US is that hotels are pretty expensive in large cities, especially in August. Also, buying food and especially eating out can be a large expense!

In total, we’ve spen slightly under 4,000 euros in total, but that is with nearly free flights. If we had to pay the flights ourselves, we would have been looking at an additional 1,200 euros and honestly, I don’t think we would have had this holiday.

Coming Back, What To Expect?

Well, you know me by now. I will continue writing articles about things that amaze me in the world of personal finance.

These articles will be about my own finances, my thoughts on investing, getting your financial life in shape, and other crazy things racing through my mind (shocking preview: I might be paying off my student loans after advocating for not doing that!).

1 thought on “My Absence, Holiday, and Coming Back!”

I’ve visited the US twice for leisure and I can only concur with your experience. It’s an amazing holiday destination but oh boy, do bills add up (especially when you eat out). That damn tipping culture. I said holiday destination because while I could probably live there, it’s definitely not my top choice. The culture is just so, hmm, intense. About the expenses, my first trip was a full month and just for myself(!), I spend 6700 EUR. This is including business class plane tickets.

Finally, it’s ok to change your mind, it happens all the time. You experience new things and get new and different insights.

Disclaimer

I’m not a financial advisor, nor am I an expert in anything I write on this site. I’m merely an enthusiastic individual documenting his road to financial independence.

I might write about investments I make, or other (financial) choices. These are intended only to document the way I look at things.

You always have to do your own research, and by no means can I ever been held liable for any damage or loss you suffered because of things you’ve read here. Always make you own decisions or consult a proper financial adviser!

I hope you enjoy the read, and that your path to financial independence goes well!